Rohit Gandhi on Trust

As an international journalist and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, he often has to quickly immerse himself in the lives of different people in a wide variety of scenarios in order to get at the truth of a story.

He has an impressive string of accolades through his work with several international news outlets, including the CBC, National Geographic, CNN, and currently, South Asian International News.

His work tackles the rights of women and children, the human impact on the environment, and the stories of individuals within war and disaster zones. Most recently, he has been following the work of Malala Yousafzai, the powerful young activist for girl’s rights and Nobel Prize winner, in her continuing fight against the Taliban on behalf of education for girls.

In an exclusive interview with Year One ahead of his appearance at U of T Scarborough’s TEDxUTSC conference on January 31, Gandhi said that his loyalty to the individuals he works with has helped him continuously succeed in his line of work. This loyalty, in turn, inspires trust.

“I’ve realized I’ve built a reputation for being able to function in a fairly international scene, and still to be able to go through many, many different cultures without much friction or resistance. So if I’m going somewhere and I want to do something, people look at my journalism and say, ‘Oh, I think the history of his journalism says the coverage he’s going to do is going to be fair, we can give access, or we can work with this person.’”

He notes that whenever he works with people, he creates a situation where people trust him enough to accept sincere feedback, knowing that at the end of the day, he has proven that he has their best interests at heart.

“When you work with people you must be able to make them comfortable with who you are, and they must be certain that when they’re working with you. They should be able to close their eyes and work with you. I think most of the relationships I’ve been able to build in my career have been based on that.”

This need for trust is the cornerstone of any human relationship. Whether it’s getting your boss to try out your new proposal, or working on building up a personal relationship, the best way to inspire trust is to show the sincerity of your efforts. We all appreciate a trustworthy person – this is a great way to be one yourself.

“When you try and build people, people will try and build you.”

Look out for Rohit Gandhi’s talk “Conflic Resolution: A Journalistic Battlefield” at TEDxUTSC. And don’t forget to follow Year One on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook for insight, wisdom and notices for when our posts go live.